Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

- urt er o 00 0') • • tralDlD Sports medicine develops specific conditioning methods'for specific needs By Len Weed How Brad Lackey and his trainer, Dean Miller, got together during the winter of 1978-79 is, in itself, a story. Brad had returned fFOm the GP wars with a bum ankle. After a couple pf months the ankle was still swollen. So he put out the word that he was looking for a trainer for some repair work. 10 Dean heard about it and went to the Sears Point Trans-AMA race to track him down. Naturally, Dean didn't have a pit pass and didn't even know what Brad looked like. But with much hollering, shouting and pointing they were able to make a date to get toget~r. The ankle responded quickly to Dean's treatment and then Brad expressed an interest in increasing his upper body strength and endurance. Dean explains what happened next: "Originally, it was a throw-together program. I had Brad come in and work out with the football players. We weren't too specific at first as far as the needs of a motocrasser. My background was with football and the Bruce Jenner conditioning approach. "I never saw Brad race until Carlsbad last year. There I wanted a test of how tough Brad was in the last few minutes of a moto. Three laps from the end he was six seconds ahead of Mikkola. We told him to pick up the pace. He immediately added five seconds. It may have looked like Heikki was slowing down, but Brad actually was speeding up. "The next week in Canada, Graham Noyce jumped out in the lead on a very dusty, hot track. Brad had a bad stan and finished fourth, which was tremendous. Brad had to work all day because of bad stam and riding through the dust. Afterward Brad was bouncing around in the pits while Noyce had his feet in cold water and couldn't move. And he had had the easier day because he had been riding up front. No one was in better condition than Brad was. The entire year might have been different if the first moto at Carlsbad hadn't been blackflagged. Several riders, from Wolsink to Noyce, approached me wanting information. Noyce wanted to work out after his knee surgery. I told him I wasn't interested because of a conflict of interest since I work with Brad. "I know the specifics of the sport now as well as the demands. We took videota pes and studied the action on the body, the body mechanics. Everyone is convinced Brad was in better condition than anyone else last year. The way he was able to come from the back and finish on top, that's total body involvement, not just cardiovascular proficiency. "I checked Brad when he got back last summer to see what he lost using just'his lightweight maintenance program overseas, with no heavyweight training. He had lost about 10% in strength and about 15-20% in the power areas. He did maintain his car· diovascuIar proficiency because he does a lot of running. "We're going to do some cardiovascular monitoring on the bike so that at various levels we can simulate where his heart rate is at various stages of a moto. In that way his workout will cor· relate with what happens on the bike. So we'll be very specific. Everybody knows you need cardiovascular endurance for motocross and they run different mileage, That's fine, but what's enough or too much? We'll be looking into that and what kind of running is best for motocross. " Miller's work with Lackey opened the door for him in professional motocross. "Last year 1 did some work for Suzuki with Darrell Shultz and his knee. I've talked with Mark Blackwell about getting a full time program going for Suzuki. They didn't feel they were ready for that, but tbey decided they wanted to do a kind of advisory program where we physically broke down each rider and put them on a basic program. We analyzed their strengths and weaknesses, their diet and old conditioning programs. I can't go into specifics because it's confidential information. I will consult with Suzuki during the year if tbey have specific questions. I would definitely say tbat if Suzuki takes the information we offered tnem and follow it carefully they should do very well. Of course, they did well last year, winning two championships. They're on winning ways. "Kawasaki called last summer and said they were having problems with Jeff Ward racing well for !l5 or 40 minutes and then getting tired at the end of the moto. What he needed was some polishing in the area of muscular endurance primarily. In the upper arms area he was probably the weakest motocrasser I'd ever tested at that point. I've found most motocross riders are weak in the area of muscular endurance, Brad was an exception, primarily because of his earlier workouts with

• Cover